Facing declines in its core businesses of personal computers and printers, Hewlett-Packard is looking to next-generation printing in an attempt to drum up more revenues.

CEO Meg Whitman said at a speech in Beijing that HP is developing a 3D printer that it hopes to offer next year, according to a report from The Register. In an email Wednesday, Hewlett-Packard spokesman Michael Thacker confirmed that Whitman said HP would enter the 3D-printing sector.

"3D printing is in its infancy" Whitman said, according to The Register. "It is a big opportunity and we are all over it. We will have something by the middle of next year."

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3D printers allow for the creation of three-dimensional objects by layering plastic or similar materials in a pattern dictated by a computer. While in use by industrial customers for years, the technology has grown cheaper and become more popular among hobbyists and inventors; the CEO of 3D printer manufacturer Stratsys said earlier this year that it is a $3 billion industry that will double by 2016.

Whitman's speech focused on enterprise customers, with the idea that they would then market themselves to individual users of the devices, with Whitman saying HP is looking to develop new 3D-printing technology that will speed up the process while making it more affordable.

"To print a bottle can take eight to ten hours. That's all very interesting, but it is like watching ice melt," she told the Canalys Channels Forum.

Since Whitman has taken over the company, she has announced massive layoffs and attempted to look for new revenue sources, including tablets and smartphones. In a recent meeting with Wall Street analysts, Whitman expressed optimism that her turnaround effort was taking root, saying, "When we do things well, boy, there is no one better in the industry."

HP's Wall Street struggles were not an outlier Wednesday, as all three major U.S. stock indexes tumbled. The SV150 also fell, but performed better than the overall market thanks to gains from Apple and Gilead Sciences (GILD).

Symantec dropped 2.3 percent to $24.62 Wednesday, but its after-hours performance was far worse. The Mountain View security-software company fell more than 13 percent at times in late trading after its earnings report showed revenues dipped 4 percent year-over-year to $1.64 billion. "While this was a challenging quarter in our transition year, we expect our actions to translate into growth," Symantec CEO Steve Bennett said in Wednesday's news release, which showed Symantec's profits rising 26 percent from last year to 34 cents a share. It was a busy day for Silicon Valley quarterly earnings reports: Lam Research, Varian Medical Systems, Polycom and Equinix were among the other SV150 companies to report after the markets closed Wednesday.

And the widely watched Standard & Poor's 500 index: Down 8.29, or 0.47 percent, to 1,746.38

Check in weekday afternoons for the 60-Second Business Break, a summary of news from Mercury News staff writers, The Associated Press, Bloomberg News and other wire services. Contact Jeremy C. Owens at 408-920-5876; follow him at Twitter.com/jowens510.